Generative AI in teacher education: Using AI-enhanced methods to explore teacher educators’ perceptions

The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 has sparked discussions about integrating Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into teacher education. Teacher educators, as key facilitators of pre-service teachers, play a critical role in determining the successful adoption of GenAI. Their perceptions guide curriculum redesign, define best practices, and shape pre-service teachers’ experiences with GenAI, potentially multiplying its impact across future classrooms. This mixed-methods study explored Danish teacher educators’ perceptions of GenAI (n = 91), focusing on its transformative potential, challenges, and the knowledge pre-service teachers need to acquire. The study employed innovative methods, including GenAI-enhanced thematic analysis and Natural Language Processing, to analyze qualitative and quantitative data. Results highlight diverse perceptions, ranging from enthusiasm for fostering innovative teaching practices (AI didactics) to concerns about ethical implications, assessment challenges (AI assessment), and safeguarding basic skill acquisition. Teacher educators emphasized the need for pre-service teachers to acquire AI literacies—AI as a teaching tool, content, and learning tool—framed within ethical, cultural, and democratic boundaries. Mediation analyses revealed that intrinsic motivation and confidence significantly predicted teacher educators’ use of GenAI, fully mediating their perceptions of its potential. Findings highlight the importance of professional development initiatives that offer hands-on GenAI experiences and informal, collaborative opportunities to address its rapid development. This study highlights GenAI’s transformative potential for teacher education and the complex skillset pre-service teachers need to engage critically and responsibly, ensuring its integration aligns with educational and societal values.